It is quite common for a telephone call to be completed to the number dialed, but be unsuccessful in the sense that the intended recipient is not available to take the call. When this occurs the caller will typically leave a message requesting the intended recipient to return the call. When the call is returned the original caller's telephone may be busy or unanswered. Under these circumstances the original caller is not aware that the intended recipient of the original call has received the message and has attempted to return the call. It is often important that the original caller be made aware that an attempt has been made to return the call. It is also common for a telephone call to be unsuccessful because the number being called is busy or the telephone is unanswered. The end result in either of these circumstances is the same in that, typically, one must spend a considerable amount of time attempting to complete a call to a particular individual. While these scenarios always create problems, the problems are greatly magnified when they occur in the business or professional world, wherein time is measured in terms of money, and good public relations are imperative.
An example of the attempted return of a call occurs when an animal owner has a pet in a medical care unit and calls to ask the care provider personally about the animal's condition. The care provider is busy and a note is taken to call the pet owner. When the care provider places the call, the telephone may be busy or unanswered, thus the individual being called cannot be reached.
An example of attempts at original calls is illustrated by the case of a real estate agent who must contact a client within a short time in order to consummate a sale. The agent tries to call the client only to receive a busy signal or no answer. If the agent is to reach the client he/she must continue to try to call the client. Failure to reach the client can often mean a lost sale, as well as a lost client. Of similar concern is the serious public relations situation that occurs if the client is not contacted and chooses to relate the incident to others who may be customers or potential customers. Other examples occur when clients call for a particular individual in need of personal information regarding important matters such as health, finance or legal matters.
Thus a need exists to provide an automated telephone system for accomplishing the time consuming task of repeatedly placing selected calls until the calls are successfully completed. That is to say, the calls have either reached the individual being called or an appropriate message has been provided.
Upon trying only once to return or place a call, the present invention will repeat the call until it is completed. At that time, a recorded message is played to the person or machine answering the call. The message may inform the recipient that an attempt has been made to return the call at the time and date recorded by the system, or it may provide whatever information is desired. This system takes no effort on the part of the user other than an initial call attempt and activation of the system.
The result of having such a system is that without an additional expenditure of time on the part of the caller, the intended recipient will receive the caller's message at the earliest possible time. This translates to greater customer interaction and satisfaction and less effort and time "wasted" on the part of the caller.
Examples of related prior art are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,943,289 to Sheldon et al, 4,712,230 to Rice et al; in British patent GB 2,238,208 to Dawson; in publication bulletin titled "Assurance of Copied Calendar Event Notification via Telephone Messages" which appears in IBM Technical Bulletin, Vol. 36, No. 09B, September 1993; in an article titled "High-Tech Telephone does the Dialing" by Andy Pargh, published in "The Journal" [of Pairfax Va.] August, 1992; and in International Publication Number WO 92/08309 by Dibianca, published under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. While the devices described in the prior art relate to automatic dialing of telephone numbers none is adapted for attachment to a conventional telephone wherein each number dialed on the telephone is automatically stored for future recall and without further programming may be selected for recall by a single operator action.